4/5
Dangerous Thoughts.
Yokohama, Japan. It's been a long time since acts have been over here on tour. Man, its been a long time since I've even got the chance to cross the pond and go back home. Ever since corona happened and artists like Bon Iver and Ben Harper started cancelling dates in Tokyo, early 2000 as a precaution. Before we all knew just how bad it would get...and still is (20,000 cases and counting). New normal now, it's starting to open up again like good conversation. A few weeks ago Fuji rocked to the likes of Jack White, Vampire Weekend, Halsey and Japanese Breakfast. Next month Lady Gaga will play the Saitama Super Arena twice like the NBA champion Golden State Warriors in Ocotber. And we've even got tickets to see Norah Jones that month in an old martial arts arena from the Olympics...the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. And if that wasn't enough in The Bay of Yoko's Billboard Live comes an iconic hip-hop group that's been in those very charts for more than a minute now. The Roots. Needless to say it was sold out long before I even had chance to pick up a leaflet at the train station. You know why. This group is so legendary. And we're not talking about the fact that they moonlight as Jimmy Fallon's 'Late Night' House band. Or that the drummer of drummers, Questlove won an Oscar for his 'Summer Of Soul' documentary before the slap heard around the world clouded over all of that like it still shouldn't. We're not even talking about the fact that raps first bigvand even has a member called Tuba Gooding Jr. (show me the genius). But we do need to talk about the fact that, lead singer of the best band in hip-hop or not, Black Thought is consciously one of the most consistently underrated emcees in the game. Keep THAT in mind when you talk about West Philadelphia, born and raised.
Bootleggers beware! Ever since Brian Joseph Burton AKA Danger Mouse mixed Jay-Z 'Black' with Beatle 'White' to make 'The Grey Album', he's been in your area, causing mass hysteria. Tenfold...or should we say Penfold?! Going 'Crazy' with Cee-Lo Green, he made history in 'St. Elsewhere' with Gnarls Barkley (no relation to Sir Chuck running a power move on them). And then became really legendary in the world of ciphers and clicks, forming Danger Doom and 'The Mouse and The Mask' with the late, great MF DOOM, who we sadly lost in the worst year of our lives. And then in between producing albums for the Gorillaz ('Demon Days'), Beck ('Modern Guilt'), countless one's from The Black Keys and even some of the Red Hot Chili Peppers 'Getaway', he and Italian composer Daniele Luppi (who right now is giving the music for the Disney + shorts of the tree of few words, 'I Am Groot') made cinematic beauty with 'Rome' that even featured vocals from Jack White and Norah Jones (Danger Mouse produced Jones' 2012 change of tune, 'Little Broken Hearts'). But now with Thought he gives us one of the best albums of the year, firmly in the second half of the calendar. And an absolute classic to the craft of hip-hop. All the way to the seeing eye artwork in black and white with 3D glasses for the people in Tribe Called Quest colours. Are you getting the picture? Simply put, this is a "yellow everything, yellow diamonds on me, honey mustard" 'Cheat Code'.
Enter it into your phones like you used to do your consoles and the crazy, kinetic beat of the title-track that's for sure a standout. 'Sometimes' you just get albums and classic collaborations like this out of nowhere. And you know this from the first track's outstanding outset, man. We just hope this is only the beginning, rapping, "Prisoners of Azkaban, thinkin' of a master plan/Images of grandeur by Jamel Shabazz, Dapper Dan/Clap your hands whether you in Paterson or Pakistan/Richard Wright, black boy that grew into a blacker man/Early African or European, which was more supreme/The visions vary, this shit get scary, inform your team/My dignitary consigliere is more a Deen/My skin tone is aubergine, I'm a war machine." Just like Don Cheadle in these armor wars for you Harry Potters. Sage wise words in the form of a rap from the Black Thought of one of the best to do it as tried and tested as the salt and pepper in his big beard. This is the real deal, hammer and nail, 'No Gold Teeth'. For the 'Identical Deaths' of two killing it like, "I was proven effective by clinical tests/For livin’ many lives, dyin’ identical deaths/I thought why, how could this have ever been if I’m blessed?/Then I had a talk with God, that was interview-esque/He said “Rik as near as the west and far as the east/There’s a warrant for your arrest by the karma police"/The dharma was deep, our daughter was too dark with defeat/But made it here to tell the story by the chalk of my teeth." Or the classic collabos of 'Close To Famous' and the beautiful closing orchestra of 'Violas and Lupitas' ("since the glory days like Springsteen, I been clean") for this anything but chalk and cheese pair. But for all the collaborations and samples here like the ones from 'A Most Violent Year' with a legendary Oscar Isaac and Albert Brooks like the gangsters they are. Or works with Raekwon and Kid Sister for 'The Darkest Part', your reason why in 'Because' with Joey Bada$$, Russ and Dylan Cartlidge, an instantly familiar 'Strangers' with A$AP Rocky and the one and only supergroup, Run The Jewels, the 'Saltwater' with Conway the Machine and the standout 'Aquamarine' with the absolutely groundbreaking Michael Kiwanuka. It's finding 'Belize' with the dearly departed DOOM for Danger Mouse's first hip-hop album since 2005's fantastic 'The Mouse and the Mask' that's B.I.G. like this rapper was Notorious. "Ahem, your attention please/Freeze, he came to seize the free cheese/Before he flees to Belize/In case you forgot to mention, squeeze these/Just keep it on a need-to-know basis/They knew he was a negro, so no need to show faces/Back in the days of no laces/On a slow pace, they used to say he might could go places/Meh, whatever the case is/The card he played was ace of spades, but no races." Absolutely classic hip-hop, fellas. Can't cheat this code. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Playlist Picks: 'Cheat Codes', 'Belize (Feat. MF DOOM)', 'Aquamarine (Feat. Michael Kiwanuka)'.
No comments:
Post a Comment